the only one that takes a bit too long, IMO, it's the Temple Guardian and that's by design as you can just skip it with the fruit.

 

Could you define "too long" from your point of view? If I can pop my heroic ability three times in one boss fight, it is definitely too long for my taste. Previously, the longest solo fights (Revan solo doesn't count) alloweed one or two heroic ability pops. That was long, but well, ok. But three?

 

I think they just forgot to add GSIsus, with him this would have been closer to normal story mode difficulty.

 

It's not just the bosses, all mobs have more hp than normal.

 

That was my impression. I played story mode first and I immediately wondered whether I accidentally chose veteran mode. It felt like soloing a veteran FP, especially the mobs. (The bosses don't really do any damage though.)

 

I would prefer that FPs were NOT used as Story Missions but rather FPs should be put back as OPTIONAL SIDE MISSION. Like they have always been. Give us back REAL story mission that we can do over time and not JAM a FLASHPOINT DOWN OUR THROATS AMD CALL IT A STORY.

 

I think at this point of time it's safe to assume that this kind of game updates we got this year is what we get next year as well. I'd bet (although won't) a 60-Days-Gametime-Card that the next story updates will be exactly like this one: Minimal effort that they can sell as solo AND group content at the same time.

Edited December 1, 2017 by JattaGin

I think at this point of time it's safe to assume that this kind of game updates we got this year is what we get next year as well. I'd bet (although won't) a 60-Days-Gametime-Card that the next story updates will be exactly like this one: Minimal effort that they can sell as solo AND group content at the same time.

 

I'll bet you have no takers on your bet.

 

I think storyline expansions require a significant larger number of resources than FP's. There are outside factors that slowed some of the game development down (such as a lengthy voice actors strike that put the lid on any new projects) but the resources allocated to this game seem to be limited. I'd love to be wrong though.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Keta

Could you define "too long" from your point of view? If I can pop my heroic ability three times in one boss fight, it is definitely too long for my taste. Previously, the longest solo fights (Revan solo doesn't count) alloweed one or two heroic ability pops. That was long, but well, ok. But three?

 

the temple guardian took me about 5 minutes. As dps of course. Are you playing as a healer by any chance?

I think those of you who are saying they did these boss fights in <5 minutes need a better timer. Now granted I've done this only twice. Once on a healer and then once on a Vanguard tank, but they take a LONG...LONG time.

 

Right after the Guardian droid there is a repair bot, each time I've repaired there the cost was over 15k, and that was with zero deaths. While that really isn't a lot of credits in this era of the game, its ridiculous for a flashpoint.

I think those of you who are saying they did these boss fights in <5 minutes need a better timer. Now granted I've done this only twice. Once on a healer and then once on a Vanguard tank, but they take a LONG...LONG time.

 

Right after the Guardian droid there is a repair bot, each time I've repaired there the cost was over 15k, and that was with zero deaths. While that really isn't a lot of credits in this era of the game, its ridiculous for a flashpoint.

 

I notice that as well. Everyone who's saying <5min boss fights have high lvl gear. My guardian tank has an avg gear rating of about 218. I'd bet there are more ppl with ratings similar to that than there are with the fully augmented 248's.

 

Now that said, I did enjoy the fp for the most part. And I'm sure my merc who's much better geared will blaze through it with my lvl 38 Mako. But for the average player it needs some adjustments imo.

I ran this through with my imperial agent. Couldn't wait to get Temple back! Anyway, he is actually my lowest geared level 70 character with 208 item rating. Yikes! Anyway, I had no problem with the flashpoint, except that I felt the boss fights took a while. Oh and I ended up doing it twice because I first select story mode

 

Other than than, no issues, well maybe one. On the 2nd boss Syndic Zenta, Raina was out of line of sight on healing me and I died once. Zenta was at 10% health too! But I also didn't scope the room before starting the fight for all the healing nodes. That would have saved me from dying. After that I would call Raina to come to me. They constructed these fights for a Level 1 Raina to be able to heal us through it, which I thought was good. I wonder if you rank her up as soon as you get her if her healing is even better in the flashpoint. I may try that experiment on the next character.

 

I skipped the bonus bosses because I would rather do the droid one with a friend so we can help each other on interrupts. I did try the droid boss on my Jedi Sentinel and couldn't get the interrupts all off since it would be on CD when the droid would start healing or buffing again. Also, Raina really took a beating in that fight and almost died more than once. I think I would feel more comfortable leveling her up for that encounter before I try it again.

 

I heard the beast boss can sometimes bug out and you end up having to start the FP over. So I have been reluctant to fight that one for those reasons. Maybe on a 2nd run through but not on my 1st one.

I ran this through with my imperial agent. Couldn't wait to get Temple back! Anyway, he is actually my lowest geared level 70 character with 208 item rating. Yikes! Anyway, I had no problem with the flashpoint, except that I felt the boss fights took a while. Oh and I ended up doing it twice because I first select story mode

 

Other than than, no issues, well maybe one. On the 2nd boss Syndic Zenta, Raina was out of line of sight on healing me and I died once. Zenta was at 10% health too! But I also didn't scope the room before starting the fight for all the healing nodes. That would have saved me from dying. After that I would call Raina to come to me. They constructed these fights for a Level 1 Raina to be able to heal us through it, which I thought was good. I wonder if you rank her up as soon as you get her if her healing is even better in the flashpoint. I may try that experiment on the next character.

 

I skipped the bonus bosses because I would rather do the droid one with a friend so we can help each other on interrupts. I did try the droid boss on my Jedi Sentinel and couldn't get the interrupts all off since it would be on CD when the droid would start healing or buffing again. Also, Raina really took a beating in that fight and almost died more than once. I think I would feel more comfortable leveling her up for that encounter before I try it again.

 

I heard the beast boss can sometimes bug out and you end up having to start the FP over. So I have been reluctant to fight that one for those reasons. Maybe on a 2nd run through but not on my 1st one.

 

I just did the beast boss for the first time on my pretty well geared Gunslinger (ilvl 244 avg / augmented). He didn't bug out, but the fight was long and tedious, particularly given how easy the mechanics were.

 

Overall, given the comments in this thread (and a different), I do think a consensus is forming that boss fights get a bit tedious. Frankly, I think there is too much trash too, but I didn't focus on that in my OP given that I think it is easier to tweak Boss HP compared to redoing a bunch of trash pulls.

 

Dasty

Edited December 2, 2017 by Jdast

I just did the beast boss for the first time on my pretty well geared Gunslinger (ilvl 244 avg / augmented). He didn't bug out, but the fight was long and tedious, particularly given how easy the mechanics were.

 

Overall, given the comments in this thread (and a different), I do think a consensus is forming that boss fights get a bit tedious. Frankly, I think there is too much trash too, but I didn't focus on that in my OP given that I think it is easier to tweak Boss HP compared to redoing a bunch of trash pulls.

 

Dasty

 

Well, I think the beast fight is supposed to be tedious (Since you are supposed to skip it anyway, random achievements can certainly be tedious, 3 grophets on rishi anyone?), but as far as boss fights vs trash, I really think it is the trash that needs to be toned down. It may be easier to tone down the boss fights, but I don't think that it would really solve most peoples frustration with this.

I ran through this again with my tank Sith Warrior. I managed to get into a nice corner during the Valss fight (he didn't vanish, just stayed there and fought me until he'd lost a lot of health), and just beat on Valss nonstop...and by the clock on my computer it took 12 minutes. 12 minutes of just hitting the same buttons again and again and hitting Endure Pain and the Heroic Moment abilities every time they cooled down. At that point you just zone out and aren't even paying attention to the fight anymore.

I ran through this again with my tank Sith Warrior. I managed to get into a nice corner during the Valss fight (he didn't vanish, just stayed there and fought me until he'd lost a lot of health), and just beat on Valss nonstop...and by the clock on my computer it took 12 minutes. 12 minutes of just hitting the same buttons again and again and hitting Endure Pain and the Heroic Moment abilities every time they cooled down. At that point you just zone out and aren't even paying attention to the fight anymore.

 

Did you use your legacy attacks? Dps companion? What's you're presence?

I think if they cut health of ALL enemies in the FP in half, it would feel much less tedious, while not affecting difficulty in any practical manner. Unless people are actually dying by falling asleep.

Did you use your legacy attacks? Dps companion? What's you're presence?

 

Presence = 3538. Influence level 50 on companion who was on heal, but tends to be very aggressive and will generally clear a room even on heal (SW has no self-heals and I seem to do better when companion heals). Lots of datacrons (not all, but more than half). 246 gear that is actually tank gear, not DPS. Rotation that is pretty effective in most fights. Didn't die once on any attempt at Valss.

 

Many people have been complaining about the length of the boss fights so this isn't a Newbie McNew Player thing that the fights take forever. If you have to beat on the boss in a solo mode FP for ten minutes to kill it when you're not struggling at all, it's got too much HP.

Presence = 3538. Influence level 50 on companion who was on heal, but tends to be very aggressive and will generally clear a room even on heal (SW has no self-heals and I seem to do better when companion heals). Lots of datacrons (not all, but more than half). 246 gear that is actually tank gear, not DPS. Rotation that is pretty effective in most fights. Didn't die once on any attempt at Valss.

 

Many people have been complaining about the length of the boss fights so this isn't a Newbie McNew Player thing that the fights take forever. If you have to beat on the boss in a solo mode FP for ten minutes to kill it when you're not struggling at all, it's got too much HP.

 

But that's the thing. I did it with my scoundrel healer today. Temple rank 1 as dps, used the legacy attacks and beat Valss in solo mode before my heroic moment came off cd after using it once. Worse gear than you and, I think, worse presence rating too. And I don't have a dps rotation on my scoundrel healer.

 

This is just strange.

But that's the thing. I did it with my scoundrel healer today. Temple rank 1 as dps, used the legacy attacks and beat Valss in solo mode before my heroic moment came off cd after using it once. Worse gear than you and, I think, worse presence rating too. And I don't have a dps rotation on my scoundrel healer.

 

This is just strange.

 

Wish I'd had that experience! That sounds great! How was the Syndica whatever her name was fight in the middle? That is one I think might be far easier with a ranged character/companion.

 

It does seem as though there might be an issue with the flashpoint in terms of the difficulty rating being as posted.

In another thread someone who was a pretty respected/longtime poster mentioned that on different runs the difficulty levels seemed to change. And I've heard about Temple at low levels being completely inept for some people and pretty talented for others, which might be presence, but also seems to be something more.

 

I do wonder if that's a possibility that there's some issue with solo/story players getting thrown into Veteran, because it seems as though some people have a much easier time than others even when running the same characters or being fairly experienced at the game.

Wish I'd had that experience! That sounds great! How was the Syndica whatever her name was fight in the middle? That is one I think might be far easier with a ranged character/companion.

 

It does seem as though there might be an issue with the flashpoint in terms of the difficulty rating being as posted.

In another thread someone who was a pretty respected/longtime poster mentioned that on different runs the difficulty levels seemed to change. And I've heard about Temple at low levels being completely inept for some people and pretty talented for others, which might be presence, but also seems to be something more.

 

I do wonder if that's a possibility that there's some issue with solo/story players getting thrown into Veteran, because it seems as though some people have a much easier time than others even when running the same characters or being fairly experienced at the game.

 

The middle one was...well, fine I suppose. Liked to jump out of my legacy orbital strike and push my scoundrel and interrupt legacy Force lightning, but otherwise fine.

 

If there is a bug, I wonder what's actually causing it. I have done this fp...13 times now? with different alts, and haven't personally experienced it yet. Might be that I'm just lucky, or it's caused by something that doesn't affect my alts?

 

It would probably be helpful if more people struggling with the bosses taking forever to kill could post stuff like their gear rating, what kind of companion they used, their presence, double-check the mode they were in, the amount of hp bosses had and whether they used stuff like legacy attacks.

The middle one was...well, fine I suppose. Liked to jump out of my legacy orbital strike and push my scoundrel and interrupt legacy Force lightning, but otherwise fine.

 

If there is a bug, I wonder what's actually causing it. I have done this fp...13 times now? with different alts, and haven't personally experienced it yet. Might be that I'm just lucky, or it's caused by something that doesn't affect my alts?

 

It would probably be helpful if more people struggling with the bosses taking forever to kill could post stuff like their gear rating, what kind of companion they used, their presence, double-check the mode they were in, the amount of hp bosses had and whether they used stuff like legacy attacks.

 

I'd wonder what is up, too. I've not encountered the bug others have reported where you can't actually complete the flashpoint and get transported back at some point, but that seems to be a huge thing for other players.

 

Doing that sort of data reporting would likely be a huge help in trying to figure it all out, you're right. In terms of the levels, in my case, I definitely did solo the first time I did the FP (I double checked after reading the forum posts here to make sure I clicked the right thing on the console), and the second time, I clicked on it and traveled there from the solo flashpoint list on the activities panel (really helpful, that is). When I have the energy to try this again I'll try grabbing it as 'story' directly from the terminal in Odessen and see if that makes a difference.

bioware dont care they just want you to grind and grind and gind again the new 230 and 236 augment is proofs...a fps should not take 1 hour to complete and the new 230 augments should drop on ops boss and other fps boss too

In the name of scientific inquiry, I ran through this again. I went to Odessen and made sure I was grabbing story mode from the terminal. The HP on the bosses in story mode is:

 

Guardian Droid: 1,264,634

Zenta: 761,804

Valss: 1,802,285

 

https://imgur.com/a/SS8AG

 

Those do seem like HPs that are more usually found in Veteran mode, and it explains why one needs to keep hitting them for what seems like an hour before they die.

I've done it 3 times now --- one BH, one Smuggler. and one JK ...

I am geared in 230 ( mostly anyway -- a few items are lower) ---

the last three bosses are not that bad -- except for a melee class ... perhaps it was just a bug, but my poor companion had to finish off Valss because he kept going stealth whenever I came toward him at about 10 % or so and I was unable to force leap for some reqason

( thank goodness for Raina, don't want to hear anymore about how "bad" she is ... she is good even at influence 1 )

Other two were fine -- they were ranged and not bad -- just long, so long .....

the worst by far was that .... Guardian Droid .... good grief --- after I learned to keep my ranged in one place for the most part and fight from there, it was better --- but still long

My melee though... never again .... it was just bad --- I died more as my poor JK than the other two combined

 

So really --- Zenta and Valss were not that bad after learning some tactics -- long, but not unenjoyable ---

the last --- awful for melee ( I hope it was a bug and not on purpose design)

The Guardian Droid --- the worst of the three ... long .... and again, if you are melee, it is much longer

Again, yes I know my gear is awful, but you should be able to enjoy the game in "story" flashpoints even if you don't have raid gear or tier 4 command rank gear

I ran through this again with my tank Sith Warrior. I managed to get into a nice corner during the Valss fight (he didn't vanish, just stayed there and fought me until he'd lost a lot of health), and just beat on Valss nonstop...and by the clock on my computer it took 12 minutes. 12 minutes of just hitting the same buttons again and again and hitting Endure Pain and the Heroic Moment abilities every time they cooled down. At that point you just zone out and aren't even paying attention to the fight anymore.

 

Yes, I'm definitely going to respec my JK from tank to DPS before running this! Even on my DPS SW with a mix of 230/234 armorings and 244 hand-me-down mods and enhancements (plus 228 augments), the first boss fight took approximately forever. In fairness, that's mostly because I assumed that I needed to take care of the adds as they spawned, and that's apparently not the case in this fight. I thought I must be missing some obvious mechanic that would either stop the adds from spawning or take down the boss in a hurry. I was really shocked when Dulfy's guide came out and said that I hadn't missed anything--we were supposed to just ignore the adds and work on the boss.

 

The second and third fights actually seemed fine to me; the third one was a little long, but not terrible. I can't imagine how long they would take me in tank spec, though!

In the name of scientific inquiry, I ran through this again. I went to Odessen and made sure I was grabbing story mode from the terminal. The HP on the bosses in story mode is:

 

Guardian Droid: 1,264,634

Zenta: 761,804

Valss: 1,802,285

 

https://imgur.com/a/SS8AG

 

Those do seem like HPs that are more usually found in Veteran mode, and it explains why one needs to keep hitting them for what seems like an hour before they die.

 

Those are really high health values for a solo flashpoint. For an average player (about 5K DPS) the final boss is a 6 minute long fight just to burn those health points (assuming you can even maintain that rate with the other things going on around you). That's longer than most story mode operation boss fights. No wonder story players are having difficulty with it, they are not going to be optimized for damage output.

Alright folks, here are some real numbers.

 

Vengeance Juggernaut. No stealth. This spec is not exactly top of the heap in dps right now, but some nice defensive cool-downs. Gear is 230s that I got entirely because of the recent CXP boosts and doing Iokath/Oricon weeklies. So this is very obtainable gear. Darth Hexid on dps the whole times. She's rank 20 (thanks for the cheap gifts! Anyone who doesn't know, the companion gift vendor on fleet is selling super-cheap gifts that Hexid likes.) Pretty much everyone can get a companion to rank 20.

 

Story Mode. I never once used heroic moment or unity.

 

Total time to finish instance: 23 minutes. Skipped everything unnecessary.

 

Guardian Droid boss kill time: 2 minutes and 11 seconds.

 

Now.

 

Here's the deal. I almost died in this story mode flashpoint many, many, many times. I did pull through with zero deaths, but it was close.

 

Those of you saying the flashpoint "is not challenging, it's just tedious"---PUT AWAY YOUR DAMN HEALING COMPANION. Lord. Have. Mercy. Use a dps companion! What are you so afraid of? You know, when you die in a video game, you don't die in real life.

 

Anyway, people who are saying story mode is "easy" and "tedious" are completely full of it. It's not easy, not unless you have 248 gear and a rank 50 companion.

 

Oh. It's also easy if you have a healing companion. But here is the deal. Healing companion has been EZ mode for a while now. So don't complain. You know the score.

 

I really, really, really hope they don't change story mode of the flashpoint at all. Story mode is freaking awesome. It is the best story mode fp they have ever done.

_______

 

Now if we are just talking solo mode, where everyone is stuck with rank 1 Raina and a lot of people won't know the fight mechanics (hint: you are SUPPOSED to ignore the tank droids on the guardian droid fight), I agree that either the health pools of Valss and the Guardian Droid need to come down, or else they need to let you bring in another companion. Most players who don't know the fights are going to take like 10 minutes to kill that guardian droid. And there will be some who will be on that fight for 15 minutes or more. That's not cool.

 

There is a HUGE difference between when you first do the fights and when you don't know them. The first time I did the new flashpoint I had spent over half an hour in there before I finally got that first boss down. Now the whole thing takes me 20 minutes when I bring my best companion.

 

So there you go. Some real numbers I think will help the conversation.

Those of you saying the flashpoint "is not challenging, it's just tedious"---PUT AWAY YOUR DAMN HEALING COMPANION. Lord. Have. Mercy. Use a dps companion! What are you so afraid of? You know, when you die in a video game, you don't die in real life.

 

tank + dps comp: not hard, just tedious.

dps + tank comp: not hard, just tedious.

dps + dps comp: not hard, just tedious.

veteran mode in full group: not hard, just tedious

 

That has been my experience.

tank + dps comp: not hard, just tedious.

dps + tank comp: not hard, just tedious.

dps + dps comp: not hard, just tedious.

veteran mode in full group: not hard, just tedious

 

That has been my experience.

 

hahaha Oh those TWO MINUTE boss fights. So tedious. I mean, who has two minutes nowadays? If the fights were only one minute long, would that be short enough for you? How about thirty seconds?

 

I notice that I posted what gear, spec and companion I used. You left that out. But that's not really what your post is about, is it?

 

Here, let's make this easy. What solo or small group content in the game is not tedious for you? Tell me. What content has fights so short that they meet your standards?

Those are really high health values for a solo flashpoint. For an average player (about 5K DPS) the final boss is a 6 minute long fight just to burn those health points (assuming you can even maintain that rate with the other things going on around you). That's longer than most story mode operation boss fights. No wonder story players are having difficulty with it, they are not going to be optimized for damage output.

 

That's what I was thinking too. And with the way two of those three bosses stealth and move around, and have pretty intense AoE attacks, one does get interrupted and can't necessarily maintain that rate. HPs of 1 million seem to be in the realm of some of the world bosses or what one would find in the Veteran flashpoints.

 

For the solo/story mode IMHO they really do need to drop those HPs and allow you to bring a second companion along as a helper. It makes sense in terms of the story, that the Commander would have an Alliance representative escorting them as backup along with Raina Temple, instead of just walking off with a virtual stranger on an unfamiliar planet where they're hostile to Force users.